Winemaker Notes
Brunello Riserva offers a solid, full body and excellent aging potential. Its ample and complex bouquet is reminiscent of violets, wild berries, cedar, leather, tobacco and spices. On the palate, it is austere and seductive with a perfect blend of fruit, acidity and mouth coating tannins. This is the perfect bottle for Brunello lovers.
Pair with Steak au poivre, rack of lamb or beef carpaccio.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Sweet berry, cherry, orange peel, plum and sandalwood aromas and flavors. It’s medium- to full-bodied with chocolate, toffee and cedar flavors highlighting the cherry fruit. Some orange peel at the end.
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Vinous
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is darkly floral, blending wild herbs with dusty dried violets and hints of wild blueberry. It possesses a pretty inner sweetness and graceful feel, with nuances of tart citrus elevating its red and black fruits. A staining of wild berry concentration mingles with edgy tannins, while a bump of residual acidity maintains lovely balance.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and round, exhibiting black cherry, blackberry, earth, vegetal and mineral flavors. Builds to the finish, with stiff, grainy tannins, delivering fine concentration and length. Still lively and needs time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Altesino 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva shows dark fruit and earthy notes with pressed flower and grilled herb. This vintage feels ready and accessible, and there is a budding hint of evolution that recalls smoke and tar. The wine is open-knit with a velvety, full-bodied texture. Fruit is sourced from across 25 hectares on mostly limestone alberese soils.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.